Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Popularity Rise
by TheZeroOfRhyme
Summary: The most popular girl, Holly Hills, failed to notice Greg Heffley in 7th grade. Summer's over and Greg - now in 8th grade - has one last year to rise in popularity and get the girl he deserves before they graduate middle school, as well as go through hilarious circumstances and situations. But Rodrick has other plans...
1. The 'Romantic Getaway'

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Popularity Rise

by TheZeroOfRhyme

**_I decided to sign up for FanFiction and post my first fan-fiction, for 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid'_****_. Also, this chapter is the shortest, the next ones are 1500-2000 words average._**

**_I will post a new chapter every week. Rate&Review if you've enjoyed reading :-) I apprecriate it. Thank you_**

**Disclaimer: I do not own 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' or its characters.**

**_Rated T or PG-12 for: censored language, mild teenage environments and mild violence._**

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**Chapter 1: The 'Romantic Getaway'**

"Okay boys! We're leaving now with Manny. Don't burn the house down while we're gone!" announced Susan Heffley to her two sons.

"What could possibly go wrong? Rodrick's asleep and Greg is well behaved…well, _most_ of the time…" Frank Heffley assured his wife. "Besides, we'll only be away for the night and for tomorrow morning. We'll be back at around noon, _men_."

Greg faked a "good bye" wave at his parents and then glared at his little spoiled brother, Manny.

Greg glanced at Rodrick, his older brother, who was still sleeping on the couch. He definitely won't be having another party while our parents are gone tonight since he has the flu. The last time they left Rodrick alone in the house, he threw a huge party.

Now that Rodrick was asleep and pretty ill, their parents saw this as their chance to leave because they were sure that he wouldn't be throwing another party.

Greg's parents always go on their little _honeymoons_. So for tonight until tomorrow, they will be going on another honeymoon and they're taking Manny with them again.

Not surprisingly, they don't trust Greg and Rodrick to be alone with Manny, but it's mostly because of Rodrick since he's so irresponsible and untrustworthy – especially considering the fact that he's the oldest brother by a _long_ shot in the family.

Anyways, their parents are going to take Manny with them to the four-star hotel that they'll be renting a room in.

Greg didn't know which was worse: being left alone in the house with Rodrick or going with his parents to their romantic holiday.

Come to think of it, he'd rather stay home alone with Rodrick. He _hates_ Manny, so he'd be glad to stay home if it meant that he won't get to see his little brother for almost a whole twenty-four hours.

Besides, Greg didn't want to spoil his parents' _"Romantic Getaway"_- but not out of consideration. He just didn't want to see them act lovey to each other, especially in front of him while eating at the dinner table.

But it's also risky for him to stay home alone with his big, unpredictable, lazy, mean brother. But this time Rodrick's sick, and he has always _loved_ sleeping, so it's very unlikely that something will happen to Greg.

He just wants to kick back and play 'Twisted Wizard 2' upstairs in his bedroom while eating out of packets of cheese and bacon balls.

He also heard that 'Twisted Wizard 3: Manao's Curse' is awesome and that his best friend and sidekick, Rowley, just got it for Christmas, but ever since his dad found out how violent it was – for Rowley that is – he confiscated it from him.

Greg's parents slowly walked out the front door with Manny, and then took a last long look at Rodrick, who was still sleeping on the couch, with looks of relief. Mr Heffley still gave a suspicious look at Greg, and then once more back at Rodrick who was still sick and asleep.

"Bye bubby." teased Manny to Greg. Manny knew how much Greg hated being called "Bubby".

As Greg gave him a short angry stare, Manny held up his middle finger at him just before their parents took him with them outside, shut the front door and locked it.

"Manny just gave me the finger! " Greg protested just before he remembered that Rodrick was still asleep – he needed to let him sleep because who knows what would happen if he was _awake_.

He then looked at where his brother was supposed to be sick and asleep on the family couch, but he had completely disappeared.


	2. Unsupervised

**Thank you for continuing. Please Rate&Review and Enjoy reading!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' or its characters.**

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**Chapter 2: Unsupervised**

Greg Heffley was honestly convinced that Rodrick was sick and that he was asleep the whole time.

Maybe he had gotten so good at sleeping that he can immediately wake himself up whenever he wanted to.

This doesn't really matter right now, or least the part about how great Rodrick is at sleeping. Greg must find out why his brother had disappeared so soon after their parents had left the house and locked the front door.

He walked down the hall and tried hearing if Rodrick might be sick in the conveniently located bucket in the laundry room.

There was absolute silence in the laundry, and he didn't need to go in and check to see if Rodrick was in there because he knew that one of the last places Rodrick would run off to in the house would be the laundry room.

He turned right down the hall and in front of him was the door that led down into the basement which was Rodrick's bedroom.

He heard voices and some laughter in the basement. So his brother must have gone down there.

But he was supposed to be sleeping in his room at the least since he was sick.

_I can't believe that I fell for Rodrick's act again_, Greg thought. In fact, the whole family had fallen for his act. It seems that Rodrick had pretended to be sick again.

Greg must admit that Rodrick had done a good job at doing that because he had all of the symptoms of the flu, or so Greg had suspected.

He walked to the basement door and pressed his ear against it to see why Rodrick was acting so chatty instead of "sicky" down there.

"Sup bro…do you want to come over…my parents…**** yeah...of course... mmhmm …all goodz bro, bye!" was all that Greg could make out. It definitely sounded like Rodrick was asking someone, or some _people_, to come to our house over the phone. He made quite a few more calls after that.

Greg finally tried opening the door. _This knob is freaking jammed_, he thought as he tried opening the door. He thought that because it didn't feel like it was locked at all.

You'd think that Greg would know that the door knob was jammed by now, but Greg had always been afraid of going down there.

It was because you'd have to walk all the way down the stairs and trip over Rodrick's things in pitch-black darkness, before you could reach the switch for the light bulb that was hanging by its cord from the ceiling, and switch it on…just to see Rodrick pop up in front of you wearing his favourite _Exorcist_ mask and scream right in your face.

_Whew…finally_, he thought. He only had to turn the doorknob much _harder _to make the door open. He finally turned it and then pulled the door open slightly.

He peered in, and it was dark down in Rodrick's basement because the high blinds were closed and the only light source was coming from his bedside table lamp.

Greg then heard the click of Rodrick's mobile phone being shut closed, "Gregory, my boy. I'm going to have to ask you for a favour," he said at last to Greg from the bottom of the stairs.

Greg stop peering and panicked slightly, his brother's needs were never good and half the time they ended up in a fight with each other if he refused to do the favour. "Whatever it is, I'm not going to do it!" yelled Greg. He immediately turned around and starting walking away from the door. He didn't want to take any risks into where all of this might be heading.

"If you don't help me, I _will_ tell everyone what happened to you last summer!" Rodrick blackmailed.

Greg stopped dead in his tracks and looked back the direction to the basement.

"And I'm not bluffing! I will seriously tell everyone your secret," said Rodrick, "So you'd better do everything that I tell you to do."

"You have no proof about what happened to me last summer anymore," Greg told his brother.

"Oh, I still do have proof!" Rodrick called back as he starting walking up the basement stairs.

"Wait, you took it back from me! Where is it?" asked Greg, still intently looking at the basement door. He was hoping that Rodrick would stay down in his room.

"Hell na'! I'm not gonna to tell you where it is. On top of that, did you honestly believe that I gave you that video tape? It was a phony…I still have the real evidence, Gregory," laughed Rodrick as he finished walking up the flight of stairs and opened the door to see his younger brother looking away from him in realisation of the old "Switcheroo" trick.

Greg felt so mad that he just wanted to punch his brother right on the face.

But if he did…well, if he tried to, he himself would get punched in the face and then Rodrick will call everyone and tell them the embarrassing thing that happened to Greg last summer. That was the only thought that stopped him from hitting his brother.

_So much for wanting to play Twisted Wizard_, thought Greg. He knew that he will be doing a lot of chores today. _And so much for all of that "brotherly bonding" I thought he had in him_ _when he gave that video tape back to me_.

"Listen to me Greg! Look at me when I'm talking to you…don't you know that's it rude to not look people in eye when they're speaking?" joked Rodrick sarcastically.

He then laughed at his own joke, but it wasn't funny or even a joke.

Greg forced himself to turn around and look at his older brother.

"I've called my friends Ward, Bill, and Chris and they're coming over," said Rodrick, "I've also called Heather, a huge bunch of other girls and some other peeps from my high school. I don't want you here to spoil my party, wimp. You got that?" threatened Rodrick playfully.

He grabbed Greg by the collar, but he reacted quickly and shook off Rodrick to lose his grip.

"Don't touch me, jerk," said Greg with a bit of hatred.

"You're going to go into the storage room and get all of the extra chairs. Right now," commanded Rodrick, "All of my friends are coming over for my party, so you better get moving!"

Greg had no choice but to do as he was told or else Rodrick will tell the whole world about his secret.

It was already bad enough that Rodrick almost got ahold of Greg's first diary, now he knows about Greg's embarrassing incident.

_How can things possibly get any worse than this? Oh wait, don't think that or the situation may get worse_, thought Greg. He's seen that happen before in movies.

Greg turned around and walked back down the same hallway, and began his short trip to the storage room.


	3. Rodrick's Blackmail

_Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Popularity Rise_

_**Just a notice: I'm still planning on writing 20000+ words and I will be updating every single week.**_

_**Thank you reading this far and please enjoy, Review,Fav or Follow :)**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own 'Diary of a Wimy Kid' or its characters.**_

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** Chapter 3: Rodrick's Blackmail**

**General POV (still):**

Greg sighed. What does Holly Hills think of him now? She may have seen him in his white underwear when he had his embarrassing moment at Leisure Towers, the moment that Rodrick had recorded live from the retirement home's security cameras' channel on Grandpa's TV.

_She'll never forget seeing me running around in my underwear_, thought Greg miserably. "This is not the time to flashback," he assured himself.

"Maybe she didn't recognise me behind that plant that I was carrying. Oh well, but she _will_ forget whatever ever she saw soon enough."

He then turn right into another hallway, walk down all the way to the end and the door to the storage room was just right there staring back at him, waiting to be opened.

"And one more thing, GREGORY," continued Rodrick out loud from the hall to his basement. "If you tell or say just one ******* word to mum and dad about my party, I swear I will call everyone and tell them about your secret."

"And hurry yo' ass up, you're taking a freaking long time just to walk to the storeroom! Come on, get those chairs out already," said Rodrick impatiently.

When Rodrick had finished talking, Greg had already finished his walk to the storeroom and stood in front of the door to open it, but it was locked.

"Rodrick! The storeroom's locked." Greg called out as he tried harder to open the locked door.

"Use one of mum's hairpins to pick the lock, doofus!" yelled Rodrick.

Greg knew that his brother wasn't very clever, but when it came to common everyday things, he seemed to know a lot of stuff.

Rodrick can do many things though most of those things he does are pointless in life. But he can, in fact, picklock locked doors or other types of locks and do many other things such as:

Professionally play the drums, speed tap rock music on electrical guitars, make theories on disgusting topics such as whether or not a person could puke while they're standing on their head, pull legendary pranks on school teachers or on random adults at parking lots, give good jump scares at girls in his school, Crossland High school- Greg could make a long list on the many stupid things that Rodrick can do so well.

It's no wonder why Rodrick has so many friends – _weird _friends.

Rodrick still found it extremely difficult to attract your typical girls in high school. Of course, they liked his pranks- it was just that he seemed like a weird, tough, and stupid-looking guy to them. Those types of guys never attract women in Greg Heffley's opinion, the ones who do poorly in school and play disruptive heavy metal music with silly, meaningless lyrics.

Greg walked back from the locked storeroom to the main hall and quickly turned to rush upstairs to the top floor of the Heffley's home. After he had rushed up to the top floor, he walked past the short hallway on his right, which led to the door of his bedroom, and then past the door to Manny's bedroom on the left.

Further on, after Manny's room on his left, was the family bathroom. He went inside and started searching for a hairpin.

It was all white and spacious, with a long bathtub right at the back of it. On his left were two sinks right in front of a huge mirror that touched the ceiling, and on his right at the far corner was the toilet, the _only_ toilet in the home, right there in the open.

Greg then saw a dozen of clipped bits of toenails beside it and gagged. _I wonder who did that_, thought Greg sarcastically. Then the thought of Rodrick sitting on the toilet lid biting off his toenails and spitting on the bathroom floor popped up in his head. Greg felt himself gag again and tried to shoo away the thought.

You have to be super careful about how much you reveal of yourself when you need to use that toilet, and of how much moaning noises you make when you do "number 2", because it would be super embarrassing if a visitor walked by the family bathroom and heard those noises that you were making before hearing splashes of those big drops of _you know what_.

Greg bent over slightly to open both of the low cupboards that were under the two sinks. He searched through all of his mum's cosmetic bags to look for a hairpin that could unlock the storeroom because, and surprisingly, there weren't any hairpins or thin clips laying around in the bathroom or in the house for that matter.

Women who wear them usually_ always_ leave at least one hairpin lying around the house, either on purpose or accidentally. Greg guessed that his mum was very mindful of her belongings. She was always like that, keeping her lipstick away from young children, or those tiny spoons that are used to curl women's eyelashes, the ones that Manny always finds to eat his 'Fruity Loops' with - without even _washing_ it before or after use.

Greg began to become frustrated as he couldn't find any hairpins or anything that can picklock doors, whatsoever, in the two low cupboards.

"Where are they, damn it!" he said under his breath. He knew for a fact that his mum always wore at least half a dozen hairpins as decoration on her curled up, brown hair.

She wore pink, purple or blue hairpins, mostly in her front side fringes and in her medium-length ponytail, every single day. So it should have been bound for Greg to find a couple of those pins lying around in the bathroom by now.

_There has got to be at least some hairpins in the house right now, _said Greg hopefully in his mind. He looked everywhere in the bathroom but there weren't any pins, hairpins, needles or anything at all that he could use to pick-lock the storeroom door.

"Hurry up, slow poke! Or else I'm going to call Heather to tell _Holly _that you went 'Peeping Tom' on them grandmas in the ladies' room that summer!" Rodrick shouted from near his basement.

Greg was so ticked off at how far his brother was going, using Greg's secret to his own unfair advantage. _Rodrick…you -_, thought Greg in protest, "I only went in the ladies' room because I thought that it was the men's room," he argued,"Also, w_hy_ would Heather want to talk to you? She hates you and your dumb band. We all do," blurted Greg in an attempt for a comeback as revenge.

Dead silence. _Okay... I may have said too much_, thought Greg as he became nervous and gulped.

Then he heard very fast, quaking steps coming from the main hallway downstairs. "Oh crap," gasped Greg as he started to make a run for it.

He ran out of the bathroom immediately and turned left, which was in the direction most opposite to the staircase that led down into the first floor of the house, "W-where should I go?" stammered Greg as he stopped and looked around impatiently.

Rodrick was extremely fast because in no time flat he was already bolting halfway up the main staircase.

The distance between Rodrick and Greg was about the same distance between Greg and his _safe_ bedroom.

"What did you say to _me_?" yelled Rodrick vengefully, but also in a mocking voice, as he was running up the staircase.

Greg ran as fast as he could all the way to his bedroom. He then attempted to jump over Manny's toy box that was in the way, but his left toe hit it and made it tip over to the floor anyway, decreasing Greg's momentum. He immediately tried going back to his full speed right after that.

Rodrick had already finished rocketing up the stairs and bolted past the box that Greg had just tipped over a second ago.

He had gained much more distance on Greg and was nearly within reach.

Greg looked ahead of him, not daring to glance back at Rodrick, at his bedroom door which was open a bit over half way, luckily for him. He could just rush in and lock the door at the same time that he slams it shut. He didn't care if he slammed it onto Rodrick's face, after all, he'd deserve that.

Finally, Greg slid into his room and slammed the door when he locked it. It was just a few milliseconds before Rodrick slammed into it. Greg pushed with all of his might against the door that Rodrick was trying to hit open.

"You can't stay in there forever, doofus! Oh, I _know..._" chuckled Rodrick as he pretended to have come up with a plan B, "I'm going to _picklock_ this door…"he mocked as he laughed out loud.

"You can't just picklock my door like that, Rodrick!" argued Greg.

He began to feel kind of relieved, until he realised that the current situation could get worse for him if he didn't cooperate soon, so he decided to be safe and give himself up.

"Rodrick, I'm sorry (not)! Fine…I'll help you set up your party," Greg finally gave in. "I won't tell mum and dad, I swear! Just don't beat me up again like last time."

"Do you pinky swear, then?" asked Rodrick from the other side of his brother's bedroom door.

"Uh…yeah! I pinky swear that I won't tell mum and dad," replied Greg nervously, not sensing Rodrick's teasing tone of voice.

Greg had a huge thing for "pinky swears" and he never wanted to break them, only because he wanted to go by their no.1 rule: not to break any pinky swear.

He was smart for pinky swearing. He pinky sweared that he wouldn't tell 'mum and dad', he didn't actually swear that he wouldn't tell anyone at all.

He learnt that simple trick from watching this cartoon called _Steven the_ _Smart Squirrel_ when he was a kid.

It was a movie about this really smart squirrel that talked smart and used some kind of 'reverse psychology' to get out of situations where his life was at risk, and at the same time making his enemies look stupid when they mistakenly let him off the hook.

When Greg finished watching that movie as a kid, he tried using _Steve the Smart Squirrel_'s reverse psychology' on his family.

"Do you honestly think that I'd pinky swear with you? Don't make me laugh." laughed Rodrick sarcastically, "And you took me for a freaking fruitcake, didn't you? You actually thought that I didn't see what you did there?"

"What do you mean?" Greg asked, trying to act innocent, although he still was technically innocent.

He hadn't harmed Rodrick or told anyone about the party that he was going to have tonight. And Greg got blackmailed by him, which made it even more _uneven_ between them.

Plus, Rodrick would _love _to tell everyone about Greg's incident last summer, giving him the upper hand over his young, innocent brother.

"You tried to act smart, doofus. Pretty obvious. Now open this damn door! You now have one last chance before I tell all of your friends about what happened at Leisure Towers. You hear me?" Rodrick threatened as his kicked the locked door of Greg's bedroom hard, "Now open this door!" yelled Rodrick.

As he said that he kept knocking on the door harder and harder, until it got to the point when Greg couldn't stand the loudness of it anymore.

"Stop that, Rodrick!" Greg tried yelling over the noise. He hated Rodrick so much. He hesitantly and slowly unlocked the door, "I'll only help if you promise not to tell anyone about what happened."

"Hell na'! The whole point of this was so that you would do everything that I tell you to do. I'm smarter than you think, Greg."

"Then that means that even if I help you, you'll tell everyone about last summer!"

"That wasn't what I meant, doofus. Use your head for once! If you…I mean _when_ you help me, I will give your secret a chance to stay hidden, I didn't mean that I'd guarantee your secret to stay a secret forever!"

_This is the first time he outsmarted me or anyone at all_, thought Greg.

As he was thinking of the current situation, he learnt that were two extremely important things that he had to do if he wanted to make it _even_ with Rodrick Heffley.

Greg needed to find some dirt on his brother, too. That meant that he had to try and look for something embarrassing about Rodrick that he could use against him, just like Rodrick was using Greg's summer incident against him.

The best and only embarrassing thing that Greg found about Rodrick was his senior middle school photo.

The day that the school had photos, he was too sick to go to school - and Greg had no clue about whether or not he pretended to be sick. Rodrick had gotten so good at acting that you absolutely couldn't tell.

(start of flashback) Mum had purchased the complete package of photos, which costed forty-five dollars, so she was desperate – so desperate that she was willing to send any old school photo of Rodrick to make up for his absence from photos day.

After almost half an hour of searching, Dad finally found a photo of Rodrick in the family room's large wooden chest, but it was his _second grade _photo.

"This'll have to do… Susan, I found a school picture that we can use as Rod's replacement photo!" called Dad to his wife, "Too bad we aren't even allowed any refunds for those photos!"

"Thank you so much, honey. We've been searching for such a long time!" answered Mum thankfully after she walked to over her husband, "I was just about to call the school photography company and argue for a full refund! How silly of me. Why argue for a refund if it was made clear, from the start, that they wouldn't be accepted," she laughed.

"Really?" said Frank intrigued, "Maybe you should become a politician or a journalist? And those articles you write in the newspapers, they're great! I can see why the Daily Herald accepted you in the first place."

"This is what I love about you, Frank. You're very supportive."

Frank Heffley nodded in agreement and gave Rodrick's second grade photo to her, "Here you go, honey," he said as he handed over their oldest son's school photo.

"So this was Rodrick's second grade photo. Have you found, maybe, a much more '_up to date'_ photo of our son?" queried Mum. She knew that Rodrick would be upset about this photo being used, but one of the last things she needed was to lose that fifty dollars that she could have used to buy him a nice shirt and a pair of khaki jeans.

"Sorry, this is the latest photo of him, honey. Rodrick must have chucked all of his latest school photos away. That's a _very_ accurate presumption," said Dad, "By the way, I think that now's the time to go and drop Greg off at his school."

"Thanks for reminding me, honey. But elementary school doesn't start until half past eight. Right now it's a _little_ bit past eight. I still have more time. And don't you have to leave for work this very minute?"

"Woopsy daisies. Yeah, I gotta go! I only have…um, about five minutes to leave for work," replied Frank in realisation. At least he was all ready to go in his shirt and tie, all he needed to do was grab his suitcase and head off into his car.

"I'm just going to let the photographers and the school know about this photo that will be making up for Rodrick being away," said Mum as she went to go and use the home phone in the kitchen.(end of flashback)


	4. Getting the Message

_ Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Popularity Rise_

_**Notice: As I said already, Greg's POV will begin very soon. This 3rd person POV is just trying to get you to know the story from a general point of view.**_

_**And thank you if you've already read this far, because I will update every week. Stay tuned:)**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' or its characters.**_

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**Chapter 4: Getting the Message**

Greg Heffley, back in present time, finished his minor flashback about that specific school morning ten years ago of how Rodrick had his embarrassing photo put into the class photos section of the yearbook, and sighed because he just remembered what had backfired about him looking for that middle school photo.

Earlier, he had looked through all of Rodricks things and had found that year's year book from when Rodrick was in his final year of middle school.

Greg knew where that second grade photo of his brother was, right near the end of the school book– where they show all of the middle school graduates – as always. But when Greg searched through Rodrick's grade, the second grade photo of him was gone.

Rodrick obviously cut it out of the yearbook, and the evidence of the cut out was right there in front of Greg's naked eyes. Apart from his big brother's photo incident back in middle school, there was other no dirt that Greg could dig out on him.

_Rodrick's good_, thought Greg. In his entire life, he never knew how clever his brother was. And if he was, Greg wouldn't want to even think of _admitting_ it.

Luckily, Rodrick isn't very bright at school, otherwise he would be generally thought of as an intellectual person by everyone.

But Rodrick had a pretty good perception because he was smart enough to get rid of anything embarrassing that someone could use against him in the near future, such as his younger brother Greg trying to use his old yearbook, containing Rodrick's embarrassing photo, against him.

Last year when Greg was in seventh grade – his second year of middle school – he and Rodrick got grounded for secretly throwing a party when their parents had gone to visit the boys' grandmother, in another region, who was diagnosed with cancer.

When Frank had first heard the news, he was a little upset and felt that it was his duty on behalf of the Heffleys to visit his ill mother with his wife.

Sadly, Frank's father – Greg's, Rodrick's and Manny's only living grandfather– didn't wish to come with them to see his ex-wife. Not out of stubbornness, but out of complete laziness. Greg Heffley probably inherited his laziness from his grandpa – that wouldn't be such a surprise if the doctors and and psychologists could prove that to be true.

Greg tried to tell Mum and Dad that he had nothing to do with that party, the party that Rodrick threw in their home when their parents were gone, because he had slept over at his best friend, Rowley Jefferson's house.

Not surprisingly, Mum saw harm in that, too, because Greg had left the house without her permission. To make this long story short, Rodrick and Greg were both grounded.

It was 'no video games for a month' for Greg and 'no having your band over for a month' for Rodrick. Greg couldn't any find a loophole out of his punishment, but Rodrick did. He figured out that he could go and practice with his band at his friend Chris's house, because not playing at his own home was fine by him.

It was pretty obvious to Greg that Dad wished he had worded Rodrick's punishment a little more differently, because on the first day after Rodrick was given his punishment Dad opened the curtains in the family room to look out and then cursed as soon as he saw Rodrick's van drive off with one of his band members.

It took Dad a while to figure out why Rodrick didn't listen to him.

This van was basically a ten year old, plain, rusty, white delivery van with "Loded Nape" permanently spray-painted on it in black on its sides.

Greg remembered when Rodrick's band used to be called "Loded Diper", this band name was even spray-painted on both sides of the same old, white van, too.

Their band took every opportunity they could grasp to play in front of crowds so that they could be noticed, but it reached its peak when they decided join a preschool, elementary school, middle school and high school-combined talent show night at Westmore Middle School – Greg's current school.

Rodrick didn't want his biggest chance to get noticed to be wasted because there were two thousand or so people in the audience consisting of teachers, parents, students _and_ judges, so he had tried to force Greg into recording his band play in front of everyone with mum's tablet.

Greg refused to record the band because Rodrick had been such a jerk to him lately at the time.

So instead, Rodrick thought about asking Dad to record his band, but he wasn't sitting where he was just a moment ago.

The reason why Dad was gone from his seat was because he knew that Rodrick's band was going to perform in ten minutes, so he walked out of the school auditorium and decided that he's stay out until the whole school talent show night was over because he had always hated Rodrick's heavy metal music.

That left Rodrick to choose between Mum, Manny or Greg. He immediately eliminated Manny out of his options because he would've recorded himself while making silly, disturbing and stupid faces the whole time.

Mum knew how to record with her phone, so Rodrick asked her to film his band. But she made him ask politely before she accepted his favour, which made Rodrick slightly annoyed. On the bright side, at least he had someone decent to record his band's first official performance in the middle school auditorium.

In the end, Mum did a horrible job of recording from her phone. She chose to wait until her son's band started performing before she even took it out and got prepared.

When she finally activated the Camera on her phone it took her a long while just to figure out how to make the camera record with the outer camera lens. (So she _didn't_ actually know how to record after all)

When she finally figured that out, Rodrick's band was already halfway through their song, 'Explosiv Diper!' – That was how Rodrick actually spelt it. But you'd think he spelt it that way to make it look cool - well, no. To be honest, he's by _far_ the worst speller in the family after Manny.

So Mum finally tapped 'Record' on her phone's camera just when Rodrick started his ultimate drum solo. And just when anyone thought that she couldn't possibly get any _worse_ at trying to record her son's first band performance, she even tried to speak over his band's heavy metal music to her phone about everything she disliked about the band and how Rodrick looked so skinny in that black tank top – and their band's heavy metal music was _loud_, not to mention.

And then when the band finally sat down together to watch Mum's poor two-minute recording of their performance, Rodrick totally lost it and got very angry at Mum, saying that it was all her fault that his band lost their only opportunity to get noticed.

Luckily, Rodrick never confronted his brother Greg about not accepting to record for him.

That two minute recording was obviously of absolutely no use to any record labels anymore because they would just find it hilarious and think nothing of Rodrick's band.

So this whole event was the reason why their band decided to give themselves a new band name, the 'Loded Nape' – yes, that's how it was meant to be spelt. They're also more formally and_ correctly_ known as the 'Loaded Nape', but even_ that_ spelling correction didn't make them sound any bit more professional. The band might as well stick with the incorrect form.

Rodrick even got himself his own 'Loded Nape' tattoo on his left arm that only costed him ten bucks at the Tattoo Parlour. He parents actually gave him that money to spend on books so that he could study for the SATs.

Meanwhile, back in present time, Greg Heffley had safely locked himself in his room after Rodrick _almost_ caught him. He was chasing Greg down for revenge because he had said something about Heather Hills thinking his band was awful and lame that offended him so much.

Rodrick nearly caught his wimpy brother but he had immediately shut the door literally just a _millisecond_ before Rodrick slammed into it. Greg decided that he didn't want to make things worse between them so he finally gave himself up to this jerk of a brother and unlocked his bedroom door.

"If you keep this up, Gregory…I'm going to tell Holly that it was _you_ who was running in your underwear at the retirement home! You're pushing it, bro, so be a man for _once _and get out of your room," said Rodrick, crankily waiting for his Greg to show himself.

Everyone Rodrick knew at Crossland High School would be coming over in few hours or so and he's close to losing his temper because they haven't even set up the chairs or anything at _all _yet.

Finally, Greg unlocked his bedroom door and then decided to open his bedroom door and walk out.

He shut the door to his bedroom after exiting, and then casually walked past Rodrick with his hands in his jean pockets while whistling a tune to himself as if nothing happened.

Rodrick immediately grabbed Greg by the arm and pulled him back in front of him so he could see him face-to-face.

"Just let me go, Rodrick! I was going to look for one of mum's hairpins," said Greg as he tried to shake his brother's grip off.

"Sure you were!" replied Rodrick in an evil, sarcastic tone of voice, "Listen, man. You go and look for the keys to the storeroom down there while I go and look for mum's hairpins in case you _don't_ find those keys. "

"Not until you let go of my arm first," answered Greg.

Rodrick finally let go of his arm, and Greg was on his way to search for those keys. "Hurry up and get all of the chairs out of the storeroom! And don't forget, Greg, the getting-out of your _secret_ is on the line!" commanded Rodrick with impatience.

He seemed to look like he was having a good time blackmailing his little bro into doing everything for him, but something didn't seem about right to him. He wasn't _pleased_, that's what.

_I don't think this moron is getting the message clear enough, _Rodrick thought displeasingly_, he doesn't seem to get that I'm ******** serious._

_"_Hurry up!" yelled Rodrick as he chucked one of Manny's toy cars, with dead-eye accuracy, _very_ hard onto the back of Greg's head.

"_Owch…_! Did you just throw Manny's car at me? Now that hurt!" yelled Greg from the pain. He immediately became angry at his older brother.

"My goodness, bro. How many times do I have to remind you what will happen if you take all of your time just to do those _stupidly_ easy tasks for me?" asked Rodrick jokingly in disbelief.

He face palmed and laughed to himself for a few moments, because his brother seriously looked like an absolute _dope._

_Ignore him, _Greg told himself just before he made his way down the staircase from the second floor to the ground floor.


	5. The 'Beachball'

_**Here it is, Chapter 5! Sorry for the long wait. If you've enjoyed reading, Rate and review please. Thank you for reading this far**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid'or its characters. (& I don't own 'Eight Crazy Nights')**_

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**Chapter 5: The 'Beachball'**

**Greg's POV:**

~ Man, this is my last straw from Rodrick because he's officially threatened to tell my secret to the whole world if I don't hurry up and get those chairs out of the storeroom. The door to it was locked when I last checked a short while ago, so I now I must find the keys to unlock it before I can carry any chairs out to set up for Rodrick's biggest party yet.

I hate to admit this, but maybe I am a bit slow today, but that's only because Mum and Dad haven't done grocery shopping for two weeks.

As everyone is my family knows already, I'm the kind of guy who only gets their energy from sugar wafers or cookies, because they're pretty much the only things I eat during the day.

My parents and my baby brother aren't coming back until around noon tomorrow, so if I want to have any energy back – as well prevent starvation – I'm going to have to look for some juice boxes or any spare packets of 'Bickie Bears', that Mum probably forgot to pack in Manny's lunch box for Childcare before summer, to munch on until then.

I have a pretty good idea of where the storeroom keys are. The answer is Manny, my little brother who I think is a spoiled brat. I just _know_ he had something to do with the loss of that key.

And did you see him put up his innocent, little rude finger at me? I swear that kids these days are becoming so much worse… And my great aunt thought that my generation of teenagers was bad enough. ~

_I usually enjoy summer vacation much more than going back to school, but…oh, what the heck, I actually can't wait to go back to school_, I thought as I smiled to myself as I finishing taking the stairs back down to the first floor.

~ The only reason why I'm so eager to go back to school is because I want to see Holly again – I haven't seen her for a whole three months. I'm so lucky that I haven't forgotten about what her face looks like yet.

Unfortunately, I won't get any credit for that because I bet that she forgot what _I_ looked like since she's _hardly_ seen me around in 7th grade before this summer began.

Of course, I miss my best friend, Rowley Jefferson as well.

But that's only because on the first day of summer vacation, his dad Mr Jefferson banned -more like_ forbidden_- me from coming over to their place from now on, or at least when I'm more "_mature"_ enough for Mr Jefferson, ever since I brought over the movie 'Eight Crazy Nights' to watch with Rowley in his bedroom.

I managed to get it past Rowley's dad when he checked the appropriateness of the movie by slapping a fake G-rating sticker over the PG-13 rating, and by convincing him that it was a Christmas-related movie.

Rodrick told me that it was actually _Hanukkah_-_related, _but to me both of those holidays are the same thing because they both involve presents.

Man, I still crack every now and then every time I remember doing that G-rating trick to Mr Jefferson. I really thought that I was a _boss_ for coming up with that one, until he became curious anyway and decided to search the internet about the movie I brought over after I went up to Rowley's room.

You'd think that the PG-13 wasn't so bad a rating that I had to slap a fake 'G' sticker over it, but when I read why it was rated PG, it said 'frequent crude and sexual humor, drinking, and brief drug references' on the movie case cover.

That kind of movie is practically _illegal_ for the Jeffersons, or at least for Rowley.

I've always been on Mr Jefferson's bad side because he has always thought that I am being a bad "role model" for Rowley ever since the two of us became friends, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I've reached my peak with coming over to hang out at their place now. ~

Well, back to the job I'm supposed to do for Rodrick.

I know that Manny really likes to play with keys before chucking them over onto the backyard shelter roof - he does that all of the time - so I'll need to find a way to climb up to get a good look and see if the storeroom key is up there.

Meanwhile, I had just finished taking the stairs back down to the first floor after Rodrick threw one of Manny's toy cars onto the back of my head and told me to hurry up.

I glanced on my left towards the direction to Rodrick's basement before I turned right and started jogging into the family kitchen.

I began walking through the large kitchen, went around the dining room table and then headed to the glass-sliding door.

Finally, I unlocked it and opened it wide open, which caused a large breeze of wind to immediately start flowing in, and I breathed in the nice fresh air as I walked out to the backyard. I shut the glass sliding door as soon as I exited.

I looked out at the backyard lawn and then started laughing when I saw Sweetie, our family's pet puppy who's now all "grown up" I should say, lying on his back literally _rocking_ himself to sleep trying to get back up. In case you didn't get what I meant by Sweetie being all "grown up", let's just say that he looks like _a_ _tick that's about to pop._

When Dad gave Sweetie to Gramma, my family thought that he'd be much better off to go and live with her. Honestly, I've always wanted a puppy, but owning one wasn't as good as I thought it would be that summer, so I was _glad_ when he got given away.

Heck, my whole family was glad, even Dad. He only got Sweetie because he was heartbroken when he found out at our last Father's day brunch (apparently american slang for 'breakfast-lunch') at Leisure Towers how his old puppy had died when he was a kid: Grandpa accidentally ran over him with his car on the driveway.

When we celebrated another lame thanksgiving at Gramma's house a few months after we gave Sweetie to Gramma, Mum and Dad were shocked when they saw how fat he had become ever since we gave him to her, _especially_ Dad.

He told her to take good care of him, but _obviously_ she over-did it because she turned him into a _beach ball _from all of that food she fed him.

That thanksgiving is why Dad took our "beachball" back from Gramma and made our family go home early that day. ~

And that thanksgiving is _also_ why I'm seeing Sweetie rocking himself to sleep in our backyard lawn right now, trying to get back up again.

"Hey, _Sweaty!_" I teased Sweetie, I've been calling him that ever since Dad sent Rodrick out to get his name printed on a dog food bowl, but instead came back with 'Sweaty' printed on it. This is why you should _not_ send the _worst_ speller in the family to go and do your errands.

"Are you gonna get up or what, boy?" I asked jokingly as I walked over to Sweetie who then started to pout hysterically. He knew that he wasn't able to get up without any help so he was eager for me to go and finally help him up.

I rushed over to him while I was still laughing and grabbed him from two of his paws. He was urging me to lift him up so I did it on the count of three.

"One, two…two and a half…three!" I announced before I tried lifting him. He was _heavier _than I thought. I grabbed him again, took a short, deep breath and finally helped him up onto his stumpy legs.

_It's about time that his stomach was off the ground, _I thought as I looked at Sweetie, who was now able to stand on all fours instead of on his stomach. _Maybe all of that rocking he did trying to get back up lost him some weight, _I thought in agreement.

"Having fun, Gregory?" I slightly jumped as I heard a voice ask behind me. I turn around to see Rodrick holding a _giant _knife in his left hand.

_"_Woah!" I exclaimed as I jumped back and instinctively put my hands out in defence, "What are you doing with that knife?!" I asked.

"It's a _machete, _doofus." he corrected me in his "wise guy" voice, "And what are you doing out here? You were supposed to look for those keys to the storage room!"

"Rodrick…you're holding a _giant_ knife in your hand and you're asking _me_ what _I'm_ doing?" I reminded Rodrick, laying it out.

"I'm not afraid to _use_ this, you know!" threatened Rodrick, "For your sake, just tell me why you're out here," he questioned me.

"Uh, I looked at Mum's key holder on the wall, and I saw that many keys were missing, so I figured that maybe Manny chucked the storeroom one over onto that roof," I answered as I gestured to our tall shelter roof.

"Really? Well, I'm too tired right now, so I want you to climb onto that roof on your _own. _I already brought out the drinks, set the table full of ******* food and ordered for _fifty_ boxes of pizza to be delivered, and you're still struggling just to _unlock_ the storeroom?" Rodrick asked in utter disbelief, "When I come back out, you better have found those keys," he warned me with his machete before he went back inside the house.

"Whatever," I answered back before I saw Rodrick immediately come back out, but this time he wasn't holding his knife anymore.

"Gotcha! There was no way that I'd let you waste my time again and have trouble trying to get up on that shelter roof on your own!" said Rodrick angrily as he walked past me, "Come on. I'll lift you up there," he urged with slight impatience.

He bent over a bit, put his hands on his knees, made himself go tense to increase his body strength and then reluctantly waited for me to climb up him.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Rodrick?!" I asked as I prepared myself, unwantedly (it's a word), to climb onto his back.

"Of course I'm sure! You're not _that _heavy to lift up," answered Rodrick in his brusque tone.

"No, I mean are you sure you want to throw another _party_?" I rephrased my question, "If Mum and Dad found out you threw another party, you'll get grounded for life!" I exclaimed.

_Not that I wouldn't want that to happen, I would love to see Rodrick get permanently grounded, _I thought.

"Listen, wimp!" replied Rodrick in a loud whisper as he stood up normally again to face me, "If I get grounded for this party, I _will_ take you down with me."

"I'll just tell Mum and Dad that you threatened to literally beat me up if I didn't help you! Who would they believe: Me or _you_?" I counter asked him.

"Or I'll just tell your whole school about your incident at Grandpa's retirement home. Who will get laughed at then?!" asked Rodrick.

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***intended cliffhanger***

**If you've read this far, I congratulate you. Seriously. Thank you, and Fav, Follow or Review if you've enjoyed this fanfiction so far:) **


	6. All set up

_**Sorry if you've waited a long time for this update. I'm back to school and have gotten very busy, luckily not too busy to stop updating, I'll try my best by updating every weekend. And here's Chapter 6**_

_Thank you Guest for your review, I feel accomplished knowing that you've enjoyed reading my story so far._

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**Chapter 6: All set up**

**Greg's POV:**

"So uncool, Rodrick…" I replied. I gave him an angry look.

It's already bad enough my school knows that Rodrick is my brother. If everyone found out about my embarrassing incident…well, my reputation could be ruined for the rest of the year…more like, for the rest of middle school. I might even get off to a rough start in high school and get my head flushed in the toilet with _Fregley_.

He's this weird kid from my school who lives just less than a block away from my house, and I keep getting super paranoid that he might find out that I live here and want to come over every weekend to play 'Twister'.

Trust me - getting that close to Fregley is not good for your _own_ personal hygiene. _Heh…Fregley and hygiene_, I laughed nervously.

That reminds me, I made the huge mistake of coming to sleep over at his place one time in 6th grade when Rowley and I stopped being friends for a while– Forget it, I don't even want to remember what happened or explain the details, because then I will just lose my appetite again.

"Did you hear me, Greg? Climb up or else," urged Rodrick for me to go back to climbing onto the shelter roof, "I couldn't find a hairpin earlier, so you _have_ to do this, and quickly!"

Then suddenly an idea popped up in my mind. _Who's the genius now, Rodrick?_

"Screw the key. You don't need to unlock the storeroom; you could just get Dad's screwdriver to _unscrew_ the knob off of its door."

What I saw next was Rodrick looking the happiest that I've ever seen him for the whole summer. _I'm a freaking genius!_

"Ahh…Greg, that's what I like about you," he said as he smacked the back of my head _hard_, "At the very last minute before I give your face a complete makeover, you immediately think of a _genius_ plan that almost makes me rethink everything about you. But _not_ quite…" he chuckled as he continued, "I still think you're the biggest wimp I've ever known."

He waited for a reaction from me so that he could make fun of me more, but instead I gave him an angry, withering look.

"And I still think you're a jerk," I said back. Unfortunately, he still didn't take me seriously. He never takes me seriously. He thinks that I'm a joke to mankind or something like that, for being a wimp.

"Look on the bright side, Gregory! At least yo' secret's ass is safe…for _now_ at least," he teased.

"Can you stop hitting me?! You're getting on my nerves," I asked him after I soothed the pain on the back of my head.

"Hmm…can I stop? Let me think. _Hell_ no, doofus," he replied. "It's how I relieve my stress. Now, go into Dad's shed and get me his screwdriver already. Don't let me down this time!" he ordered.

I went in Dad's shed, and sure enough I found a screwdriver on a bench. I looked all around the shed for a drill, but there wasn't one._ Screwdriver it is then, _I thought as I grabbed it from the bench.

This is all Manny's fault because he took the storeroom keys from the key holder and lost it somewhere. Actually, it's only half his fault that I had to go through all of this, because it's also Rodrick's fault for wanting to throw a party in the first place. That's how I got into this mess.

About the shelter roof, it's actually over three metres, or over ten feet, tall from the ground. Even if I wanted to use stool or something like that to help me climb onto the roof, it would still too high for me and I would probably bring the roof down if I hang from the edge of it. It took Dad hours to fix it last year.

Rodrick planned for me to stand on his shoulders while he was standing as well so I could climb up onto it, but that's too much effort for me…well, for both of us actually. Rodrick isn't exactly the strongest weight carrier.

Besides, we don't know for sure if the storeroom key is even up there. I think it's probably best if we are guaranteed access into the storage room by using Dad's screwdriver.

Like I mentioned before, Mum and Dad hasn't gone grocery shopping for two weeks, so I'm _super_ low on energy. I just can't waste my efforts on climbing onto that roof because the key may or may not be up there.

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I followed Rodrick down the hall to the storage room door. He immediately went to work and began unscrewing the first nail off the base of the door knob.

"Don't think for a second that I've forgotten about your _little_ incident ever since you came up with this backup plan, you twit. I would have thought of it anyway at some point," reminded Rodrick as he warningly pointed his unoccupied finger at me.

"Yeah, right," I remarked, "You owe me."

"I _so_ don't owe you. I would have easily thought of this idea entirely on my own - I know this sort of thing much more than you do. Plus, you're kicking back like the lame excuse you are, while I'm doing all the handy work here!" replied Rodrick, practically shouting at me, "Who owes who now, Greg? And don't answer that, it's a rhetorical question."

"Tell me something I don't know," I answered sarcastically.

"I'm going to beat the crap out of you if you don't go and make yourself useful in 10 seconds or less. Did you know _that, _Gregory?"

"Why don't you try to unlock the storeroom in ten seconds or less?" I asked as a comeback.

"Hmm, I wonder what _Holly Hills_ would think of you if she found out what happened to you that summer…" he replied while smirking in thought.

"Okay, okay! Can't you take a joke?" I asked, putting my hands up.

Rodrick finally took off the first nail/bolt of the door knob and let it fall onto the hard, polished, wooden floor. The sound of the fall awkwardly echoed through the hallway.

"While I'm unscrewing the rest of these bolts off, go and hide away everything that might embarrass me. Like Manny's _disgusting_ diaper bag of sh*t in that little bin in the kitchen," ordered Rodrick before he started laughing, "I bet that _some_ people at my party will see it and wanna play catch with it!"

"Why do _I _have to take it out of the bin?" I asked, disgusted.

"Because I'm busy with the storeroom door right now," he replied, "There's less than two hours left before people start showing up for my party."

"Fine," I said before I walked away.

I went into the kitchen and quickly noticed that our dinner table was moved right next to the wall, and it had a _lot_ of junk food on it. _Jackpot!_

My mouth started watering, because I haven't eaten any of my favourite snacks for a long time.

_Wait a minute_, I remembered, _Rodrick hid our junk food all along just so he could have them for tonight?_

I saw a lot of cookies, huge packets of cheese & bacon balls and honey-soy chicken potato chips, and some packs of Manny's favourite Bickie Bears.

"I don't really care about what Rodrick did. Right now, I am hungry as _heck_!" I said to myself excitedly before I grabbed the packet of cheese & bacon balls and poured a bunch of them into my mouth.

I looked around and saw Rodrick heading towards me looking all angry. I think he had just finished taking all of the screws off from the storeroom's door knob. "All of this food is supposed to for my party, you _douche_! Stop eating!" he yelled.

"I can't help it! I'm starving!" I tried to reply, but there were so many cheese balls stuffed in my mouth that my words came out muffled. Rodrick snatched the packet of cheese balls from me and pushed me away from the table of junk food.

"Get all the chairs out from the storeroom. Now!" he ordered, "After you fish out Manny's diaper bag and chuck it outside."

I went into the kitchen and smelled a very disgusting scent, which came from inside the little bin. "Yuck!" I reacted. I put my hand in and picked up the diaper bag from the very end of its little knot and chucked it in the rubbish bin outside.

I came back inside and went to the storeroom. I opened the door and went in. It looked almost like pitch-black darkness.

I flicked on the light switch, came in, and reluctantly started to take all of the chairs out and leave them in the family room for Rodrick to organize to his liking. _I wonder what's going to happen at Rodrick's party tonight, _I thought.

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_**If you've enjoyed this fanfic so far, please**__** leave a Review/Fav. I'm hoping for 2 more reviews for I post chapter 7. Feel free. And if you've thought you've seen the best of this fanfic so far...don't worry, things are just getting started in the next chapter! Rate&Review :)**_


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